Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - Need help with DSC 1550 w/out visible RJ31X jack

Hi,

I purchased a home with this DSC 1550 system already installed. In the control unit, I cannot locate the rj31x jack. The wiring diagram shows 4 wires which should go into a jack labeled R-1, T-1, RNG and TIP. Currently there are only wires attached to the RNG and TIP connectors, and they go into the back of the wall. I am a novice at this and am not sure what to do since the monitoring companies are wanting me to install a "seizure" device on the rj31x jack to allow them to monitor the system. However, since I do not have this jack, they cannot help me. Is there anything I can do? Thanks in advance. :confused:

One more thing--I don't have the installer code as apparently the company is out of business. Is there anyway to obtain this code again or manually reset the system? Thanks.

It sounds like the original installer hardwired the phone lines directly to the terminals in the panel, which is not a good idea for a number of reasons. You can get the RJ-31x jack and cord pretty inexpensively from pretty much any alarm retailer. It does take 4 conductors to make line siezure work correctly. Hopefully there's actually a 4 conductor phone cable in there.

The original default code for a 1550 is 1500. Short of a lucky guess, your best bet is to try numbers like the last 4 digits of the original companys phone #, the house number, and the like.

If you can't guess the installer code, the only choice is to use the hardware default. The drawback is that it wipes the system back to the factory defaults, so all of the zone settings have to be reset. Make sure you know what all of your zones do before you take this step.

Thanks Ron for your reply--

I looked at the control unit, and in fact, there are 4 small wires (wrapped in protective casing), of which 2 don't go anywhere, and the other two go to RNG and TIP. Can I assume these other 2 wires go to T-1 and R-1? One is white and the other is a dark color, I can't remember what though. Can i buy an Rj31x jack and hook the 4 wires up? Do I need any special tools to do this?

I tried the codes that you gave me on the keypad, but they did not seem to do anything out of the ordinary.

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it.

The biggest trick for the line siezure is that you have to find the other end of the cable. If you are lucky, and they did it mostly right, it goes out to your telephone demarc.

If so, the proper way to wire it is to disconnect all of the other connections at the demarc. Connect the ring (red) and tip (green) to the red and green terminals on the jack. Your other pair of wires (probably yellow and black) go on R1 (grey on the jack) and T1 (brown on the jack). Those two wires are the return that puts the dialtone back on the rest of the house phones.

Do not use wirenuts or "twist and tape". Get some of the telcom crimp splices from the home center.

Try this site (http://www.alarmmall.com/pages-infopages/pages_id-8/index.html?zenid=e55258a998882a0121fa5445a5de6567) for a pretty concise and illustrated explaination of phone/alarm connection.

For the panel, read over the install manual for your panel. It's not very hard to default the panel, but you need to be comfortable with the DSC programming syntex, and the fact that the information in the manual is _not_ llinear. Alarms are too customizable for a VCR type manual to work.

OK just to make sure, as a recap:

1) Disconnect the telephone cable at the NID.
2) Go back to the alarm box and connect all 4 wires to the rj31x and then the rj31x to the alarm panel.
3) Reconnect the cable at the NID? I went to the link you referred me to for the demarcation point/NID and it looks like only 2 wires are attached here? What happens to the other two wires? :confused:

Why do I have to reprogram the panel? I contacted Nextalarm and they wanted to send me a line seizure device that I install where the rj31x jack is, thats it.

Thanks a bunch for your time.

Ah! It sounds like NextAlarm is going to, or already has, dial in and program your system for you over the phone. Important missing detail.

The other two wires are used to provide the dial tone to the house phones. You connect them to the wires that are currently feeding your house jacks. I was not being specific because there are about 5 different NID designs that are common, and the specifics will vary.

Finally had a chance to do this! Got a dumb question though--how do I know that I did this properly? I still have a dial tone on my phone line, which is good, but is there some way of testing the rj-31x jack installation? I currently do not have service with any monitoring company. Thanks.

Test # 1: Unplug the cord from the RJ-31x. You should still have dialtones on all house lines.

Test #2: Plug the cord back in. Remove either the brown or grey wire from the terminals on the panel. House lines should all go dead.

Well unfortunately, test number 1 passed but test number 2 failed. I am fairly positive that the connections were made properly:
Here are the steps that I took:
1) Disconnected the red/green wires from the NID and unplugged phone cable.
2) Connected the 4 wires at the alarm panel to the rj31x jack--
Red - red
Green - green
Black (phone wire) - Brown (rj31x)
Yellow (phone wire) - Light grey (rj31x)
3) Connected red, green, brown and light grey wires from jack to alarm panel.
4) Connected red/green wires to the NID
5) Connected white/black wires to the NID and plugged in cable. Worthy of mentioning is that these wires were WHITE/BLACK as opposed to cable in the alarm panel which was YELLOW/BLACK. Obviously, these were two different cables and I don't know where/if they are connected somewhere in the middle of the house.

Any other suggestions? I may just call out an alarm guy to take a look at it--its either that or attempt to default the panel or just get a new system all together (since I do not know the installer code).

Thanks a bunch.

Yes, clearly somewhere in your house, the telco from your alarm is tapped into the phone system in a non-standard way. It could be behind a phone jack, or in the attic.

I've seen this happen before when the installer couldn't or wouldn't find the actual "home-run" to the NID. The most basic solution would be to run a cable directly to the NID, and bypass that existing wiring.